The fallout from the big Unity mess continues, with the MonoGame team jumping in to present a new plan for the future of this open-source and cross-platform framework for game developers.
If you've not actually heard of MonoGame you've likely still played something originally created with it including the likes of Bastion, Streets of Rage 4, Chasm, FEZ, Axiom Verge, Stardew Valley, Tooth and Tail and a great many more (although some moved to FNA). That's just a few taking from their limited showcase page.
As for what they're planning: a lot! They're going to create a non-profit foundation, to ensure it remains open-source and free for all users. Their statement in full:
In the light of the recent news in the game industry and to reassure the community about our commitment, the MonoGame Team would like to share its future plans. The team wishes the MonoGame Framework to become future-proof, both from a technical and governance perspective.
This new era of the open-source project will see the creation of a non-profit foundation to which all rights and properties will be transferred to, with the aim of ensuring MonoGame remains open-source, and free for all and any scenario, including on consoles.
This foundation will allow the adoption of a more sustainable model and will open MonoGame to be supported by more patrons. A new board will be created within this organization with the task to define which projects to undertake, and how they may be funded, transparently.
We will discuss the roadmap at a later time, but we can already state that MonoGame’s goals will be set with regard to the quality of developer onboarding for the framework, its stability and console support of the current version, and the start of a new iteration to further expand MonoGame’s reach and capabilities.
We will communicate the progress of this transition based on developments in future announcements.
We look forward to everyone joining us on this new and exciting chapter.
The MonoGame Team.
If you missed the other recent news Terraria developer Re-Logic donated $100K to Godot and FNA and Robot Gentleman switch to Godot and increase their funding too.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Quoting: JpxeWhat the difference between MonoGame and FNA?FNA from my understanding is more faithful to XNA and MonoGame is more willing to go their own way with things. Originally when XNA shutdown MonoGame was trying to get XNA to work with Mono if I remember right and so when XNA died they just made it a fork of XNA. Where as FNA is more like a modern XNA for game developers that want to stick to the original more. At least that's how I understand it...
Geamandura Sep 21, 2023
Quoting: JpxeWhat the difference between MonoGame and FNA?
That's a question asked heavily. I can't find it now, but I recently read a long blog post by a guy "flibijibito" or something like that who I understand is an absolute guru in Linux game tech. He apparently works on FNA and wrote this post about FNA vs MonoGame. For some reason that post seemed written through his teeth, diplomatically suggesting that MonoGame are just w4nk1ng in the wind and FNA has a more strict and smaller scope but they do what they do better. I'd like to say that to you as an answer but I had to mention this backstory because I feel this guru guy was biased and salty when he wrote it, so I cannot take that forward as fact to other people. Maybe others can also jump in.
Geamandura Sep 21, 2023
I just have a bad feeling some devs of MonoGame might just be forced to go where the money is now (FNA).
Last edited by Geamandura on 21 September 2023 at 6:42 pm UTC
Quoting: GeamanduraThat's Flibitijibibo aka Ethan Lee. He's the author of FNA and a very prolific game porter. He definitely knows what he's talking about.Quoting: JpxeWhat the difference between MonoGame and FNA?
I can't find it now, but I recently read a long blog post by a guy "flibijibito" or something like that who I understand is an absolute guru in Linux game tech.
Quoting: tuubiPoking around just a tiny bit, it looks like FNA was a fork of MonoGame in the first place, so he must not have been that happy with what MonoGame was like at the time. That was like nine years ago though, so who knows what MonoGame is like now.Quoting: GeamanduraThat's Flibitijibibo aka Ethan Lee. He's the author of FNA and a very prolific game porter. He definitely knows what he's talking about.Quoting: JpxeWhat the difference between MonoGame and FNA?
I can't find it now, but I recently read a long blog post by a guy "flibijibito" or something like that who I understand is an absolute guru in Linux game tech.
MonoGame is more like the next-generation XNA.
EagleDelta Sep 21, 2023
Quoting: Liam DaweFNA is more a replication of XNA, to keep compatibility.
MonoGame is more like the next-generation XNA.
In addition to this, some games were built with FNA for most of their platforms, then used MonoGame for specific ports. IIRC - at one point XBox started supporting MonoGame, but not FNA.
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